At A Glance
- SANYA, China — The Philippine Athletics team closed out strong on the sands, claiming a silver medal in the women's 4x60 meters relay in beach athletics in the 6th Asian Beach Games on the Phoenix Island on Sunday, April 26.
SANYA, China — The Philippine Athletics team closed out strong on the sands, claiming a silver medal in the women’s 4x60 meters relay in beach athletics in the 6th Asian Beach Games on the Phoenix Island on Sunday, April 26.
With the five curved high-rise buildings — which serve as icons to the man-made eco-tourism island — providing an elegant backdrop, the Nationals sprinted like a gazelle on the sand tracks and clocked 29.73 seconds — just 0.3 milliseconds behind gold medal winner Thailand.
Olympian Kristina Knott, running for the first time on the beach, bolted out of the starting line and gave the Filipinas an early advantage against their competitors in the heat 2 final.
Shane Joy Ponce and Lianne Pama sustained the run in their turns before anchor Jessica Laurance came out strong to bag the PH Athletics’ third medal in as many games.
“It's so different. There's no baton. The exchange zone is 3 metres versus 30 metres. So I think that our only enemy in the race was the zone.” said Knott.
Laurance, on the other hand, is now the only multi-medalist for Team PH so far after adding the silver to the bronze she won in the women’s 60m race.
Overall, the PH athletics team came away with a gold, a silver and a bronze in this year’s edition of the beach games. Leonard Grospe was the other gold medal winner after ruling the men’s high-jump.